A-I ready for sky marshals on US flights

Rediff.com ^ | December 31, 2003 01:21 IST | Rediff.com

[VinayFromBangalore]

Air-India is ready to comply with the directions of the United States of having armed sky marshals on board its flights while entering American airspace, if required.

It is a general direction to all airlines that armed police will be mandatory to take protective action for any foreign airline entering American airspace, A-I's public relations director Jitender Bhargava said on Tuesday. The airline at present does not have sky marshals on board its flights, he said.

"We are initiating and working out the logistics and comply if any A-I flight is identified for deployment of sky marshals since it has been made clear that it will be on a flight-to-flight basis," he added.

At present the airline operates 20 flights a week to New York, Newark and Chicago via London and Frankfurt.

The new requirement was issued on Monday by the US Homeland Security Department under an emergency amendment to existing regulations and applies to all passenger and cargo flights in the wake of threats from Al Qaeda.

Meanwhile, A-I flights out of Delhi to Europe and Gulf would start flying over Pakistani airspace from the new year.

Bhargava said the airline would save nearly an hour for flights out of Delhi while those from Mumbai would stand to gain by about 10 minutes as there was a marginal detour.

[eastforker]

What happens when an air marshall is kidnapped and an imposter using his ID boards the plane.Just a thought.

[cynicom]

Every eventuality cannot be covered. The bad guys will find some way to circumvent security measures.

[thoughtomator]

I'm pretty sure the airlines' attitude is that this is a good idea regardless of whether or not it is a requirement, and the requirement simply makes internal opposition moot.

[eastforker]

Oh, I know,just like you can not stop a determined thief.Think a whole new industry is cropping up though.One wonders if and when this will ever end.Will there be a forever war on terror.Just remembering my years ago childhood when life was so different.No terror,little crime, and the biggest worry was Cuba and the Soviet Union.We had Cronkite telling us thats the way it was and we believed him, even if he was lying we didn't know it. Sorry for the ramble, just a thought.

[cynicom]

A ramble down memory lane. Recorded history is replete with bad guys. In times of yore, a person could spend most of his life in his own little world. Now the bad guys have instant access to us. Difficult to live in a world of ones own choosing.